Is John the new Dutt in Sanjay Gupta's life?

New Delhi, Oct. 12 -- Playing the dreaded gangster Manya Surve in Shootout at Wadala proved to be a turning point in actor John Abraham's career. Besides getting critical acclaim for it, he also got director Sanjay Gupta's friendship.

Gupta has had a long association with actor Sanjay Dutt, and the two mostly worked together on every project. till the much-talked about fallout. Now the buzz is that John is the new Dutt in Gupta's life. The duo is back in Gupta's Mumbai Saga, where John plays an encouter specialist.

"John will play a hardened encounter specialist in Mumbai Saga. But the character has nothing to do with late Vijay Salaskar," Gupta says. As for Dutt, he says, "No one replaces anyone. Sanju will always be a very special part of my life. Right now John and I have new heights to scale."